On Wednesday, October 31 we visited the Singapore Botanic Gardens rainforest area to collect ideas for our writing. We were so intrigued by all the beautiful sights and sounds and had so much fun thinking of ideas for stories. After making sketches, writing word list, and taking videos and photos using the ipads, we each planned our stories using a beginning, middle, and end template. When we got back to school our Grade 4 buddies helped us to start our stories. Later in the week, we reviewed the photos and videos we collected and added to our ideas and plans, before completing our stories.
As part of our unit of inquiry and literacy lessons, Grade 1AC has been pursuing an investigation into creative writing using our imaginations. We have focused our attention on the natural world around us and inquired into how we can view it from different perspectives. We have been inspired by books such as Alice in Wonderland (in which Alice grows big and small) and Not a Stick (in which a stick is thought of as everything but a stick). On Wednesday, October 31 we visited the Singapore Botanic Gardens rainforest area to collect ideas for our writing. We were so intrigued by all the beautiful sights and sounds and had so much fun thinking of ideas for stories. After making sketches, writing word list, and taking videos and photos using the ipads, we each planned our stories using a beginning, middle, and end template. When we got back to school our Grade 4 buddies helped us to start our stories. Later in the week, we reviewed the photos and videos we collected and added to our ideas and plans, before completing our stories.
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First things first. We had to finally decide what "value" means. The word is a part of one of our lines of inquiry and it has been causing us some confusion and lots of questions since the beginning of our unit. Most of us had heard the word before, but we weren't quite sure how to use it ourselves. After some sharing of where, when, and how we have heard the word used, Georgia had an "ah-ha" moment which lead us to a class definition: Value means how good, useful, or important something is! After this discovery we could then consider the value of imagination in the context of the book Roxaboxen by Barbara Cooney. What is Roxaboxen?
What is the value of imagination for the children in the story?
After sharing our ideas about imagination in Roxaboxen, we went to our visual journals to reflect on what the value of imagination is for each of us. As an ongoing literacy connection to our unit of inquiry, Miss Alison has been reading a children's chapter book version of Alice in Wonderland. The book doesn't have very many pictures so we have been practicing the reading comprehension skill "visualization" to create images in our heads as we read. We use the reading comprehension stars to help us express our thinking. "It's NOT a stick! It's a _________!" We were so inspired by the story Not a Stick by Antoinette Portis that we decided to create our own video version. We collected sticks outside and used creative thinking to imagine these objects from another perspective. Digging deeper into the line of inquiry "How our imagination helps people to consider other perspectives", we took a closer look at visual art. We read Imagine a Night by Sarah L. Thomson and viewed and commented on four different pieces of art depicting the night sky. Through discussion and shared writing we compared and contrasted the artists' representations and perspectives, as well as our own interpretations. We were amazed to see how our imaginations can help us to think about the same thing in so many different ways! We have been practicing "creating images" as a strategy for understanding what we read. Harold and the Purple Crayon is a beautiful story about a little boy who draws himself a landscape using only a purple crayon and his imagination. Miss Alison read the story twice without showing us the illustrations. The first time, we listened with our eyes closed. The second time we listened and drew pictures of what were were visualizing using...a purple crayon! Finally Miss Alison showed us the illustrations when she read us the story for a third time. We enjoyed comparing our illustrations with those in the book. We discussed the similarities and differences using the key concept "perspective". Continuing our study of fairy tales and author perspectives, we spent some time with The Three Little Pigs. First we read the original story and completed a story map to organize our retell. Then we read The True Story of the Three Little Pigs -- an exciting alternative version told from the wolf's perspective. We compared the books as a class and individually completed Venn diagrams. Once again, we retold the story, organizing into beginning, middle, and end. Finally we got to our favourite activity...creating our own alternative version! We used our imaginations to plan and write and enjoyed comparing our diverse range of perspectives. The children have been enjoying solving maths story problems so much that we decided to create our own! In an integrated maths/language lesson, students worked in small groups to create their own story problems using the concepts of addition and number bonds. We drafted our stories and self-edited, checking for correct spelling, punctuation, and, of course, correct addition. We also created an answer page, including a variety of different solutions. Our Story Problems book is now available for use in our maths games basket. During our Literacy block, we've been investigating the common elements of fairy tales and how stories can be told in different ways from different authors' and illustrators' perspectives. We've also been practicing retelling stories in sequential order and organizing our stories into beginning, middle, and end. Our Goldilocks and the Three Bears work spanned several lessons over the course of a week. First we read the traditional story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Then we read an alternative version called Goldilocks and the Other Three Bears. We compared the two stories using a Venn diagram. We also completed a beginning, middle, end organizer for each story. Finally we made a unit connection, and used our imaginations to create another alternative version of the story. We came up with some very inventive ideas! After planning the story in our organizers we wrote and illustrated our stories. Now that we are finished Gooney Bird Greene, Miss Alison is reading a new story every day during the snack break. We are thinking about PERSPECTIVE through The Diary of a Killer Cat by Anne Fine. This story is told from the point of view of a cat. How does Tuffy see things differently than his family? Do you agree with Tuffy's perspective or his family's? |
Grade 1ACWe are a group of Grade 1 students at the ISS International School in Singapore. Our teacher is Ms. Alison. Take a look at how much we're growing and learning! VisitorsWhat's happening in PE?What's happening in Art?What's our Principal up to?What's happening in Literacy?Grade 1 Classes We Follow:Ms. Cassidy's Class (Moose Jaw, Canada)
Mr. David Bullio's Class (Tokyo, Japan) Mrs. Frazier's Class (Ohio, USA) Archives
August 2013
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